A blog about search, search skills, teaching search, learning how to search, learning how to use Google effectively, learning how to do research. It also covers a good deal of sensemaking and information foraging.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Hi Regular Readers! As mentioned, I'm in a fairly remote place in the South Pacific, where the weather is warm, the scuba diving is magnificent, and the wifi is extraordinarily flakey. Since it's so tough to do any online research for this week's SRS Challenge, I'm going to delay my reply until I get back next Wednesday.In the meantime, here are a few photos of things I've seen in the past couple of days. Have any ideas what these are, or where I am? (There are enough clues in these photos to narrow it down to a particular island group!) Search on!

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

... and sometimes it hides a story as well. In this week's Challenge, we have several locations that are covered in water, and hide their stories. In each case below, can you figure out what's going on? Why are each of these locations very interesting?

1. What's going on with all of these blue lines in the image below? You can find this oddly arranged water/earth combination at Google Maps link. There are several stories to discover here, but first--What is this? Why the strange water shapes?

2. Just below is picture of another oddly shaped and oddly colored bodies of water. Why are these giant oval things such different colors? Maps link.

3. While we're in the odd-shapes-and-colors mode, what's going on here? Why is the water so... red in some places and green in others? What causes the color changes? (Like the radio tower Challenge from last week, this is something I see nearly every time I fly into San Francisco. Big hint: This body of water is never the same color twice...)

4. There's a story about the lake below that predates its existence. Before the lake was formed by building a dam, what was here? And why would they build a lake on top of it?

5. Same question as before: What WAS here... but now you have to cast your search skills back 10,000 years. What was in this location 10,000 years ago, and why is that interesting? (This is at lat/long 54.83333333, 2.333333333)

As always, the Challenge is really to find the answer AND tell us HOW you did it! Did you know the answer off the top of your head? Or did you have to do a special kind of maps search to figure it out?

Speaking of stories, starting tomorrow I'll be in an off-the-grid kind of place, doing a bit of research for future SRS Challenges. I HOPE to be back on September 27th, but it's possible I'll still be off-the-grid. If so, Don't Panic. I'll be back to an internet connection soon.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

We see strange / odd / interesting things every day... ... but often we don't think to ask "Hey.. what is that thing?" And it's corresponding Challenge: "How can I find out about this??" One of my secret missions with SRS is to help all of us develop a working sense of curiosity... and more than that, to figure out ways to satisfy that curious twinge.This is one such story. As I mentioned last week, I see this very strange antenna every time I fly into San Francisco airport. This antenna is at 37.5469956,-122.2338807. The big question I have every time is what is this thing??Here's an aerial view:

It's a little hard to see in this image, but it's an strange beast of an antenna, with a large plate-like thing at the top of the mast. Here's the side view:

Can you see the hexagonal thing at the very top? (Click on the image to zoom in. Or if you want to, download the image and you can zoom as much as you'd like.) At the fence I also found this, in case it helps:

This is one of those everyday mysteries--things you see all the time without understanding what it is. But that's NOT what SRS is about! When we see mysteries, we try to understand what's happening. So.. .Can you figure out the story here? In particular:

1.What IS the story behind this antenna? (A bit of history, please.)

Searching for the antenna numbers:

[ tower registration 1016438 ]

[ tower registration 1016439 ]

With both of these queries, we quickly learn from the FCC's site "Antenna Structure Registration" (ASR) program exists to keep track of any antenna structure that might be a potential flight hazard. In general, this includes structures that are taller than 200 feet above ground level or that may interfere with the flight path of a nearby airport. SFO's runway is only 7.9 miles (12.7 km) away, and practically on the final approach path.

Using Google Maps "Measure distance" feature, I found that the antenna is pretty much right on the flight path, which is why passengers on the left side of a landing plane will usually see the antenna.

The ASR program lets the FCC require painting and lighting of antenna structures that may pose a hazard to air navigation. If the owner changes the antenna, they have to post an update (and get the FCC to agree to the change).

The second result is the ASR database, which lets us look up these antenna registration numbers. That looks like this:

This database shows the owner as Susquehanna Radio Corp.

By clicking on the Registration Number link, I land on this page, which has lots of information about the tower, including who owns it...

As Regular Reader Jon pointed out, searching for:

[ Susquehanna radio corp antenna San Francisco airport ]

found a really nice posting about this antenna. This site also tells us that this is an AM transmitter, and explains that the hexagonal frame at the top of the antenna is a 'top-hat' is an electrical height extender, which increases the boost for distance signal that couldn't be done because it's too close to the airport. More generally, this kind of antenna is called a "mast radiator" antenna. (With a really nice Wikipedia page on this topic.)

2.Why does it have that funny plate plate at the top?

We know part of the answer to this from our previous searches. But doing a bit of background checking, the search:

[hexagon AM radio transmitting antenna]

leads us to several pages with images. (Where we quickly learn that the top-hat need not be a hexagon! Squares seem to do just fine as well.) The top-hat atop the mast can be see in the Wikipedia Category:Antenna masts with capacitive top hats These "top hats" are sometimes used on the antennas used for AM broadcasting on the MF (medium frequency) and LF (long frequency) bands, to increase the current in the top of the antenna, thereby increasing radiated power, allowing a shorter antenna to be used.

And by the way, if you zoom in enough on Google Maps, you can clearly read the red "HAZ" letters on the ground (required by the FCC, as specified in their ASR bulletins).

you learn that this entity is now defunct, taken over a company called Cumulus. (Interestingly, the ASR form says it's owned by Susquehanna--but the CONTACT information tells us that it's really owned by Cumulus. Good to know their data is up-to-date, although the title isn't quite right.)

"KNBR is an AM radio station licensed to San Francisco, broadcasting on a clear channel at 680 kHz from transmitting facilities near Belmont, California. KNBR's non-directional 50,000-watt class-A signal can be heard throughout much of the western United States and as far west as the Hawaiian Islands at night. For several decades, KNBR enjoyed a long history as the flagship station of NBC's West Coast radio operations."

Finishing up with:

"KNBR carried programs from ESPN Radio and KTCT aired shows from both ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio until 2013, when both stations switched to the Cumulus-distributed CBS Sports Radio.

In 2015, KNBR's studios were relocated from 55 Hawthorne Street to 750 Battery Street after parent Cumulus Media consolidated its San Francisco radio stations in one building."

Which is where things stand today. The office is in San Francisco, but the old antennas (top hat and all) still stand and serve, red lights blinking, just about 8 miles from the airport.

Search Lessons

The biggest lesson is this:

1. Be curious about the world--spend a couple of minutes each day scratching that curiosity itch. This blog is all about those tools and methods to search things out. You've got the tools to do it!

2. Searching for the Tower Registration Numbers was a great place to start. It's an obvious place to start, and I'm sure we would have found them by searching for the antennas from th place name, but given the numbers on the signs, that was wonderful. It led us straight to the FCC ASR database, and the rest just fell out easily.

Friday, September 8, 2017

The AGoogleADay.com test-your-search-skills site is back up. (It's been down for a bit over the summer.) Check it out!

This is a great way to practice and improve your online research skills. (And it's especially handy for information literacy and classroom teachers.) Each day supplies 3 Search Challenges in a number of areas, Science, History, Geography, Culture. Some are easy, a few are tough, but they're all solvable... if you know how to do online search! Check it out. (And if you're a teacher, consider working into your daily routine.) Search on!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Every time I fly into San Francisco airport... ... I see this very strange antenna on the left side of the plane as we fly west to land. (I figured out the lat/long for you so you don't have to extract it: 37.5469956,-122.2338807) I've seen it for years, and yet, I don't have any idea what it is or why it's there. It's all very mysterious. (What ARE those red letters on the ground around it?)

It's hard to see in this aerial image, but it's an odd antenna, with a large plate-like thing at the top of the mast. I was so surprised by this oddity that after my last flight, I drove over and took a closer look after landing. It took a while to get there, as the roads around it aren't very straight, but I managed.

Can you see the hexagonal frame at the very top? (Click on the image to zoom in. Or if you want to, download the image and you can zoom as much as you'd like.) At the fence I also found this, in case it helps:

This is one of those everyday mysteries--things you see all the time without understanding what it is. But that's NOT what SRS is about! When we see mysteries, we try to understand what's happening. So.. .Can you figure out the story here? In particular:

1.What IS the story
behind this antenna? (A bit of history, please.)

2.Why does it have
that funny plate plate at the top?

3.Who uses this
antenna now, and for what purpose?

Next week, we'll talk about what we've found (and most importantly, HOW you can use your SRS skills to answer your own questions like this).

Leave your notes in the comments--and please tell us all HOW you found out! Did you use any special search methods? Did you need to use any special databases?